Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche

Fauna and flora

Oak and cork forests dominate a wooded pasture that, where it ends, is accompanied by an undergrowth of strawberry, lavender, mastic, hawthorns and various species of rockrose and juniper. At the greatest altitude, humidity enables the presence of gall oaks and Pyrenean oak, giving rise to an image that is more characteristic of green northern Spain. In the centre of the nature reserve, where limestone is dominant, chestnuts replace these to comprise one of the largest forest masses of the Peninsula. The good condition of these mountains attracts an important community of birds of prey, as is patent by the largest nesting colony of black vultures in Europe, present in Serra Pelada and Rivera del Aserrador. Forest birds and mammals also have a good representation: genet, deer, and boars. Múrtigas brook, Sillo stream or Montemayor brook are good examples of the exceptional gallery forests that these mountains are home to, where splendid trees allow the existence of amphibians, birds and an exceptional community of continental fish: Iberian barbel and Luciobarbus microcephalus, Anaecypris hispanica, bogue of Guadiana, roach and Tropidophoxinellus alburnoides. You cannot overlook the populations of mushrooms, with the two most famous: tana and gurumelo.